Homebrew Cervidae Species Details

Cervidaes originated in the deep woods where the Feywild influenced the prime material, and they natively spoke sylvan, choosing to spend time taking care of the forests they call home. These deer folk can be easily mistaken for Satyrs from a difference, but they are far more skittish and choose to avoid other beings most of the time.

Cervidaes are bipedal, with the characteristic cloven-hoofed, feet of the deer they resemble and furry bodies that have similar colorings to deer native to the prime material. The males (and some females) have deer like horns, and a few have long canines that jut from their mouths instead. They share the keen senses and agile movement of cervid creatures. Cervidaes are blessed with a little druidic magic, and they often find themselves living communally with the Treefolk in the forest that they call home.

Creating Your Character

At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race such as the fairy or the harengon in this section, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy. The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You can follow those suggestions or ignore them, but you can’t raise any of your scores above 20.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of languages to choose from. The DM is free to modify that list for a campaign.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including each player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race in this chapter tells you what your character’s creature type is.

Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the cure wounds spell doesn’t work on a Construct or an Undead.

Life Span

The typical life span of a player character in the D&D multiverse is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end on an adventure. Members of some races, such as dwarves and elves, can live for centuries. Cervidaes, however, have a life span of about a century.

Height and Weight

Player characters, regardless of race, typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world. If you’d like to determine your character’s height or weight randomly, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player’s Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character.

Cervidae Traits

As a cervidae, you have the following racial traits.

Horns

You may make an unarmed attack using your horns when you take the attack action. This attack deals 1d6+dex on a hit.

Creature Type

You are a Fey.

Size

You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.

Speed

Your walking speed is 35 feet.

Cervid Alertness

Whenever you enter a combat surprised, if you rolled a 15 or higher on your initiative, you may take a turn during the surprise round, but you may only use the dash, disengage or hide actions, or cast a cantrip that does not do damage.

Cervid Senses

You have proficiency in the Perception skill.

Sylvan Connection

You learn a cantrip from the druid spell list and choose int, wis, or cha as its spellcasting modifier.